Central Park: Bird's-Eye View

If you were a bird flying south around now, you might look down
and see this:

Yup, you're right! It's the island of Manhattan. See that giant rectangular forest of green with enormous reservoir in the middle? That 843 acre oasis is Central Park. I snapped this photo on a recent trip to Chicago and thought it might be a fun way to give you a big picture (and i mean big) introduction to my new fabric collection.

Over the next week (or so), i'll share a bit of the background and inspiration for some of the prints, before actually showing you the whole, colorful, mouthwatering stack of fabric. I hope this will help to give a little insight about how the collection evolved, but really, i want it to emphasize that there is inspiration everywhere! I feel like i keep saying this, but it's only because i keep learning it. Over and over. It's even hiding in places you have gone to countless times — which is what happened with me and Central Park, unexpectedly and serendipitously, one chilly afternoon.

More on that tomorrow...

For now, a little trivia about the park:
• In 1857, the city of New York held a public contest for the design of the land. The design was supposed to evoke the great parks of Paris and London.
• Frederic Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's design was selected. It was called "the Greensward Plan" and featured an English style landscape with large meadows, several lakes, and hills — pretty ambitious considering the land was mostly pig farms, quarries and swamps at the time!
• About 4 million trees and shrubs were planted
• It was the first landscaped public park in the United States
• It took 20 years to complete

Oh! a question that has filled my emailbox more than any other is, "When will Central Park be available?" Well, it'll be shown at market in Houston next month and is scheduled to ship in January 2011. What a fun way to ring in the New Year, huh?! Oops, you haven't seen it yet. Don't worry, we'll start to change that. Tomorrow.